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Democrat Heidi Heitkamp puts North Dakota Senate seat in play

Heitkamp is proving to be perhaps the best pure Senate campaigner of this election. | AP Photo

“I don’t think the Berg campaign has been strong enough in pointing out to voters the fallacy as it relates to her supposed middle-of-the-road positions. I’d like to see a stronger response,” Schafer told POLITICO. “They came out of 2010 and assumed ‘I’m the giant killer, I beat this nine-term incumbent [Earl Pomeroy], Heidi’s been out of the game. They had this giant killer mentality that ‘we’ll just do it again’ and that caught up to them.”

Schafer and other Republicans acknowledge it’s hard to match Heitkamp’s force of personality, but say the state’s GOP tilt will help Berg survive her charm offensive.

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North Dakotans have a knack for splitting their tickets, overwhelmingly sending retiring Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad back to Washington in 2000 when George W. Bush carried the state by 28 points.

But Conrad’s impending retirement effectively ended a golden era for the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party — which still uses the Non-Partisan League acronym in its title. Democrats currently hold no statewide office in the Peace Garden State and Republicans have supermajorities in both houses of the state Legislature. In 2010, the GOP snapped Democrats’ long-standing grip on the trio of federal offices, as the immensely popular John Hoeven swept into retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan’s seat, and Berg ousted nine-term Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy by 10 points.

This year, Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple is expected to waltz to his first full term and Obama is projected to lose the state by double digits.

There’s widespread agreement that no one could have made this race competitive except Heitkamp, who takes pains to separate herself from her party and president.

When she did mention the “administration,” it was to accuse it of being “hostile” to the coal industry. She also name-checked moderate West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin twice, calling him a “good friend.”

Heitkamp bristles at questions about the race potentially deciding which party wins the Senate.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about control of anything, other than representation of North Dakota,” she said. “Everybody makes a big deal out of control of the Senate. Right now, you need 60 votes. No one controls the Senate. That’s a huge problem. No one controls the Senate now because nothing gets done.”

Both sides are girding for tough attacks on hyper-local issues in the coming weeks. Republicans are zeroing in on Heitkamp’s anti-fracking firm donations and her time as a registered lobbyist for tanning companies. Democrats plan to seize on Berg’s questionable treatment of renters at a property management company.

“She’s good, I like her very much. Decent person, got a great sense of humor. That’s why it’s competitive. It’s the people’s goodwill towards her,” Wrigley explained. “But I think, it’s going to be, ‘What’s our team look like? Are you picking for John Hoeven a teammate, a partner on behalf of North Dakota? My prediction is it’s not going to be as close as people think it is right now.”

Politico where are you getting any polling information to support your headline? All polls show Berg leading Heitkamp; moreover 386 has Berg having a 88% chance of winning the seat. The fact that Heitkamp is a moderate or is thought of in a positive light does not make the seat competitive. When I saw the headline I thought we were going to see some numbers to support your claim. Instead this is a basic rehash of an earlier article. There are a number of genuinely close races out there this isn't one of them.

Heidi Heitkamp can talk about flood control as much as she likes. If coal dies out and energy costs soar, flooding would be one of the least important things that North 'Dakota would have to worry about.

Politico where are you getting any polling information to support your headline? All polls show Berg leading Heitkamp; moreover 386 has Berg having a 88% chance of winning the seat. The fact that Heitkamp is a moderate or is thought of in a positive light does not make the seat competitive. When I saw the headline I thought we were going to see some numbers to support your claim. Instead this is a basic rehash of an earlier article. There are a number of genuinely close races out there this isn't one of them.

HP, the last polling I seen done on this race was conducted on 7-11 and no polls that I can find has been done since. You find anything new?

Perotista - "HP, the last polling I seen done on this race was conducted on 7-11 and no polls that I can find has been done since. You find anything new?" ----No which is why I made my comment; I get the sense sometimes that Politico throws out these headlines to create controversy. There are some interesting races out there Like the race in Arizona, Missouri or even Montana; the Senate campaign, this year, is fascinating but ND can't be seen as a "barn-burner"